Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 21,214, Asa Gates, Conn. R.I.

SERVICE
NUMBER
Conn.
Gates, Asa.
8 21.214.
982.
Carded
CONTENTS

1737. Rhode Island
Asa Bates
of Newport in the State of R.I. who was a Ensign & P in the Company commanded by Captain [blank] of the Reg't commanded by Col Huntington in the R.I. & Conn line for 1 Year 11 Mos 15 Ds Ensign 15 " Private
128 110 5 1 67
Inscribed on the Roll of R.I. at the rate of 236 Dollars 65 Cents per annum, to commence on the 4th day of March, 1831.
Certificate of Pension issued the 9 th day of Nov 1832 and Supt H. R. Newport R.I.
Arrears to 4th of Sept 1832 $ 354.87 Pemi=ant. allowance ending 2 Jan 33 118.32 $473.29
{ Revolutionary Claim, { Act June 7, 1832.
Recorded by J H S P Blair Clerk. Book D - Vol. 3 rd Page 114.
Albion Ar.
Died Jan. 10. 1841
Per A. B.

and the said Court do hereby declare their opinion, after investigation of the Matter, and after putting the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department, that the above Named applicant was a revolutionary soldier and served as he states. And the Court further certifies that it appears to them that Michael Eddy who has signed the preceding Certificate, is a clergyman, resident in the town of Newport aforesaid, and that Sanford Bell who has also signed the same is a resident in the said town of Newport, and is a credible person, and that their statement is entitled to credit.
I Benjamin B. Howland, Clerk of the Court of Probate of Newport aforesaid, do hereby certify that the foregoing contains the original proceedings of the said Court in the Matter of the application of Asa Gates for a pension.
In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal of Office this fourteenth day of September A Eighteen hundred and thirty two.
Bliss B Howland Probate Clk.

and he has no means of ascertaining whether any of them are yet living. Those who remained here & all the officers of his company & regiment as far as he has any recollection, he believes, are all deceased. He names Elder Michael Eddy & Mr. Sanford Bell his present neighbours, who will bear testimony to his character, and here produces in Court a Certified Copy of his appointment as Ensign of the third company of Artillery in Exeter, for the purpose of having the same hereto appended - He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present & declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.
ASA GATES
Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid in open Court Witness Blyth Howland Prob te Clk.
We, Michael Eddy, a clergyman, and Sanford Bell both residing in Newport, hereby certify, that we are well acquainted with ASA GATES , who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration; that we have known said Gates about twenty years; we believe him to be seventy five years of age; that he is respected and believed in the neighbourhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the revolution, and that we concur in that opinion; that we esteem said Gates to be a man of strict veracity, and have no doubt that the foregoing declaration made by him is true in all respects to the best of his knowledge.
Michael Eddy
Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newport Sanford Bell
Sworn & subscribed the day and year aforesaid in open Court Witness Blyth Howland Prob te Clk.

That during said period said company was armed & equipped at its own expense, & kept in readiness to march & did repeatedly march to various parts of the country which was kept in a state of constant alarm by the enemy. At one time, he was stationed with a guard for several weeks at Point Judith. During Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island he was drafted to serve fifteen days in that of Providence & did so serve. He was with the American troops which took possession of Newport after the British had left that town. He was born at S d . Preston but at about four years of age he was carried to West- Greenwich in Rhode Island to which place his father had removed. There he then appeared lined with his father at the time of his enlistment in the company at Preston as first stated. He afterwards settled in Exeter, a town in Rhode Island adjoining to said West Greenwich. Since the Revolution he has lived in Rhode Island and chiefly in S d . Newport. On the first day of January next, if then living, he shall complete the seventy sixth year of his age. The time of his birth was recorded in a bible kept by his father, which bible he believes is in the hands of an older sister who lives in the western part of New York State. The original bible record was copied by him into a bible belonging to himself. George Wilcox then of said Exeter was Captain of the company of which he, this affiant was Ensign. He received no certificate of discharge from the state or militia service, his term of service having expired with his last commission as Ensign, his was deemed of course. That his certificate of discharge from Capt. Jewett's company at Niantic & his two commissions as Ensign, were if preserved by him, of which he cannot be certain, among his other papers in a house he occupied on the long wharf in said Newport on the twenty third day of September A.D. 1815. & were then destroyed or lost in the great flood & gale with which that said town was on that day visited. That after the Revo- lution great numbers of the troops with whom he served moved out of this state

State of Rhode Island & c. Town & County of Newport, ss.
On this fourteenth day of September A.D. 1832 personally appeared Asa Gates of said Newport-mariner, aged seventy five years, in open Court before the Court of probate now sitting; who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7. 1832.
That in the month of July 1776. or 1775. he cannot now precisely remember which, at Preston in the State of Connecticut, he enlisted as a private to serve for five months, in Capt. - Jewett's Company of Continental  Connecticut State Troops, said Company belonging to Col. Huntington's Regiment. That immediately upon his enlisting he marched with said company to Roxbury near Boston, of which latter town the British forces were then in possession. He remained with his said company doing duty therein until nearly five months, when having been taken sick & the time for which he had enlisted having al- most expired, he was discharged and returned home to Rhode Island where he belonged. That in June A.D. 1779. he was appointed by the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island, an Ensign of the Third Company of Militia in the Town of Exeter in said State & commissioned for one year; and at the end of that year he was reappointed by the same body & comm- issioned to serve until the first Wednesday in May 1781. That he accepted said office & commission & served in that capacity in said Company during the time for which he was so appointed. said Company, he believes was part of a Regiment commanded by Col. Byre.
4/3/22

No 7322
Asa Gates of Newport R.I.
Enclosed 1 year 11 mos & 15 days
From _____ 15 days 2 years
admitted
BWB
$ 236.65-
H. G. Cranston Esq. Newport R.I.

BRIEF in the case of Asa Gates of the County of Newport in the State of R. Island (Act 7 June, 1832.)
 1. Was the declaration made before a Court or a Judge? Court  2. If before a Judge, does it appear that the applicant is disabled by bodily infirmity?  3. How old is he? 75 year  4. State his service, as directed in the form annexed. 
   Period. Duration of Service. Rank. Names of General and Field Officers under whom he served.   Years, Months, Days.     in 1776 or In 1775 July — 5 — Private Col. Huntington, Capt. Jewett   1779 1 — — Ensign Col. Dyer & Gcorge   1780 — 11 — ditto. Wilson Captain   '81 — — 15 d o Same - he thinks   Same  
 5. In what battles was he engaged? none  6. Where did he reside when he entered the service? Greenwich  7. Is his statement supported by living witnesses, by documentary proof, by traditionary evidence, by incidental evidence, or by the rolls? documentary —  8. Are the papers defective as to form or authentication? and if so, in what respect? 
X  Certify that the foregoing statement and the answers agree with the evidence in the case above mentioned.
Levin Belt Examining Clerk.

Revolutions
21 214
Am
INVALID.
File No. 21 214
Asa Gates
Ensign New War
Act: June 7 th 82 nd
Index:—Vol. 2 , Page 145
[Arrangement of 1870.]

N o 7322
Asa Gates
H. H. Cranston Esq; Newport R. I.

BRIEF objections to the admission of Pension Claims, of which those answered in the negative, in red ink, will apply to the claim of Asa Gates which require further proof or explanation.
I. Does the declaration show where the applicant resides ? yes II. Did the declarant make the declaration in the county where he resides ? yes III. If the applicant did not make the declaration in the county where he resides, is there any reason assigned for his not doing so ? IV. Has the declarant mentioned the period or periods of the war when he served ? yes V. *Has he mentioned with precision the length of his service, and the different grades in which he served, in language so definite as to enable the department to determine to what amount of pension he is entitled ? yes VI. Has he given the names of the officers under whom he served, in conformity with the regulations ? yes VII. Has he made a relinquishment of every claim to any other pension than the one under the Act of June 7, 1832 ? yes VIII. Has the Court given their opinion ? yes IX. Has the Clerk given his certificate ? yes X. Is the Clerk's seal affixed ? And if so, has it a device or inscription by which it can be distinguished from any other seal ? yes.

XI. Has the applicant obtained the evidence of a clergyman and another respectable citizen as to their belief respecting his age and the general belief in his neighborhood relative to his revolutionary service? yes
XII. If the clergyman's affidavit has not been produced, is there any reason assigned for not obtaining it?
XIII. If the applicant has no documentary evidence, and has not obtained the testimony of at least one living witness, has he stated in his declaration that such proof cannot be had?
XIV. †If the applicant has produced a witness or witnesses as to his service, has the magistrate who administered the oath certified that he, she, or they are persons of credibility?
XV. Does it appear from any of the papers that the witness was in such a situation, or of such an age, as to have a personal knowledge of the applicant's service?
XVI. ‡Are the papers authenticated as the regulations direct? yes.
XVII. Are the seven interrogatories prescribed by the War Department answered satisfactorily? And, if not, which of them is not so answered? no.
EXPLANATORY NOTES.
‡ QUERE V. In a case where the applicant cannot, by reason of the loss of memory, state precisely how long he served, he should amend his declaration by making an affidavit in the following words:
“Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, a Justice of the Peace, &c. A. B. who, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that, by reason of old age, and the consequent loss of memory, he cannot swear positively as to the precise length of his service, but according to the best of his recollection he served not less than the periods mentioned below, and in the following grades: For _____ year _____ months and _____ days, I served as a _____. For _____ months and _____ days, I served as a _____; and for such service I claim a pension.”

It is important in all cases to determine with precision the period for which the applicant served, and the particular rank he held, as the law directs the pension to be paid according to the grade of the pensioner and the length of his service. The use of the phrase about three or four months is too indefinite, and all such qualifying expressions are objectionable.
†QUERE XIV. Proof of Service.
In a case where the name of the applicant is not found on the records of the Department, he must prove his service by two credible witnesses, who are required to set forth in their affidavits the time of the claimants entering the service, and the time and manner of his leaving the same, as well as the regiment, company, and line to which he belonged. The magistrate who may administer the oaths must certify to the credibility of the witnesses, and the affidavits must be properly authenticated, as above directed.
‡QUERE XVI. Mode of authenticating papers.
In every instance where the certificate of the certifying officer who authenticated the papers is not written on the same sheet of paper which contains the affidavit, or other paper authenticated, the certificate must be attached thereto by a piece of tape or narrow ribbon, the end of which must pass under the seal of office of the certifying officer, so as to prevent any paper from being improperly attached to the certificate.

BY HIS EXCELLENCY,
Samuel H. Arnold
Governor, Captain-General and Commander in Chief of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations.
Be it known that the name "HENRY BOWEN," to the afore- written attestation subscribed, is the proper hand writing of Henry Bowen, Esquire, who, at the time of subscribing the same, was Sec- retary of the State aforesaid, duly elected and qualified according to law: Wherefore unto his said attestation full faith and credit are to be rendered.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of said State to be affixed, at Provi- dence, this tenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty- two and of Independence the fifty- seventh .
Samuel H. Arnold
BY HIS EXCELLENCY'S COMMAND.
Henry Bowen Secy

State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Secretarys Office Sept 10 th A 1832.
I certify that at the session of the General assembly of said State holden on the second Monday of June one thousand seven hundred and seventy nine Asa Gates was elected Ensign of the third company of Militia in the town of Exeter in the County of Washington; That at the session holden on the second Monday in June 1780. Asa Gates was elected Ensign of the second company of Militia in said Exeter until the first Wednesday of May then next; as appears of record in this Office.
Witness Henry Bowen Secy.